Curbelo First Republican Congressman To Suggest Trump Could Be Impeached

Representative Carlos Curbelo (FL-R) appears to have been the first republican member of Congress to publicly suggest if President Donald Trump asked former FBI director James Comey to stop investigating former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s Russia ties it could be an impeachable offense.

Curbelo talked about the possibility of impeachment while speaking to Capitol Hill reporters on Tuesday afternoon and later that night on CNN.

any effort to impede or interfere with a federal investigation is by definition an obstruction of justice, and there’s precedent for the House to consider obstruction of justice an impeachable offense.

According to Comey’s memo recounting Trump’s request he said Trump told him “I hope you can let this go.”

Curbelo pointed out to CNN “obstruction to justice, in the case of Nixon, in the case of Clinton in the late ’90’s, has been considered an impeachable offense.”

Curbelo wants Comey to hand over his notes and to testify publicly before Congress so lawmakers can learn firsthand about the president’s actions.

He said:

Once we have that information, we’ll be better informed and see how we proceed from there. This could be the beginning of a very dark chapter in our history — or it could be nothing.